The Bad Seed

I was blaming our lack of savory on bad seeds earlier this morning. Then I got thinking about it, and the fault may not be bad seeds at all, it could just as easily be my mishandling. I started looking closer at that tray today, and while all the jalapeno plants all did fine, none of the savory, and only four (of ten) sets of Thai basil came up, and even they are none too happy. During the time when they should have been germinating is about the time we started leaving the windows open overnight, and a couple of nights the house got pretty cold. Add to that, I let that tray dry out a little too much one day, and you have me being guilty of negligent sprouticide. Oh no, I really DID kill it! Whoops!

So... today, I re-planted five pellets of savory and the last six pellets of Thai basil. I put in way more than enough seeds to ensure some will germinate in each soil pellet, and I'll keep a closer eye on temperature and moisture level for these. I also planted the next set of five sweet basil pellets, four sets of broccoli (in case direct sowing in the garden doesn't work out for whatever reason), another 4" pot of thyme, and one more chamomile (one of the chamomile I potted last week didn't make it). Additionally, I potted the cumin plants I planted earlier this spring.

"The meadows shine with columbine..."

Our flower bed may not quite be a meadow, but the columbine is certainly shining. We planted this little guy from seed indoors and then planted the seedling in the flower bed last spring, but we weren't sure it was going to make it, as it didn't really grow very much last year ("OH NO! WE KILLED IT!"). We are both just thrilled that it came back this year just fine. It makes for a nice perennial addition to our little meadow.

We're down to our last two remaining sets of seedlings in our indoor greenhouse right now: Thai basil (which I'm going to take outside to begin "hardening off" this weekend) and savory. I think we've got a bad batch of savory, though... I planted around forty seeds, but not one of them has come up yet. I'm going to give it another couple days, but then admit defeat and start working on another herb. Maybe it's time to begin our next round of sweet basil.

Also, today I see a sprouting row of spinach in the garden. Looking forward to eating that!

"I've given you sunshine, I've given you dirt..."

The Jack-in-the-Pulpit started blooming yesterday (see photo on right). The Lily-of-the-Valley continues to smell divine whenever you walk outside, and the cocoa mulch continues to smell like chocolate whenever it gets wet! Nicole's flowers are all really doing well this year. She is suffering from a bout with poison ivy (poor thing), but she was doing much better today.

There's the possibility of a severe storm tomorrow, so I didn't really want to put too much in the ground today. So instead, I planted our carrots and parsnips in large pots. Last year, our soil was so dense (we have very clay-heavy soil here) that while we had healthy carrots, they were not able to get very big. We're talking, like, three or four inches long. This year, we did do some soil amendment to try and get a better texture to our dirt, but we also decided to grow carrots in a pot with nice fluffy potting soil and lots of water. I also threw the parsnips in another large pot because, frankly, I didn't have any room in the garden for them! They're a very long-season vegetable, and really need exposure to freezing temperatures before they finish maturing, so we'll see how they do in this climate and in an above-ground pot.

Yesterday: planted broccoli plants, spearmint (in a sunken pot in herb bed), rest of the sweet basil (in the herb bed), tarragon, lovage.

Also, it appears the lettuce is starting to poke above ground today, too. I'm hoping the spinach isn't too far behind.

"Plant a radish, get a radish, never any doubt..."

Good timing for that rain over the weekend. It timed out perfectly for our early vegetables. This afternoon, I just popped out to take a look, and our radishes are up (see photo at left), as are the mesclun greens, and even some of the onions!

Plan for tonight: I'd like to start getting the rest of the plants and seedlings in the ground. We now have a forecast through May 7th with no temperatures remotely close to freezing. Historically we have had frost up through May 15th in this area, but I think we're probably now in the 90+% confidence interval for staying above freezing. I'll still baby my tomatoes and peppers for a little while longer, but I think it's time to plant just about everything else. Fun!

"Soon it's gonna rain, I can feel it..."

This evening, the rain held off long enough for us to play out in the dirt. Yay! I got some garden peas planted (we still need to put up a simple trellis for them to climb), and Cole planted several garlic. We're not too sure if they'll sprout without an overwinter freeze, but we're going to give it a try.

Then I started potting my herbs. I got four pots done before we lost the light: anise, cilantro, a sweet basil transplant, and the chamomile transplant.

Cole was hard at work shoring up the sunken pavers and cleaning off all the dirt and weeds from the stairway between the woodland bed and the ash tree bed. In the woodland bed, the lily-of-the-valley has just started to bloom, and it smells divine!

Sunday afternoon at Teske's

It was a rainy, nasty day yesterday, so I spent most of it indoors. It was good, because I got started on some projects around the house that I'd been meaning to do for some time. We also took a trip to Teske's and purchased some plants. I've not yet plunked them in the ground, but here's a list of what we acquired:

• Broccoli, Pacman (4 pack)
• Bell Pepper, Mohawk (orange - already blooming!)
• Tomato, Roma
• Tomato, La Roma II (4 pack)
• Tomato, Brandywine
• Lemon Verbena
• French Tarragon

Tonight, if the rain will hold off, I'd like to get the broccoli in the ground, and maybe start potting some herbs and root veggies (carrots, parsnips).

Earth Day 2010

I took the day off of work yesterday in honor of Earth Day. No, actually, I took it off in honor of Working-The-Earth Day. Got so much done!

I laid down the last two walking paths in the garden. Then I planted two rows of onions, half a row of spinach, half a row of mesclun greens, half a row of kale, half a row of corn salad greens, some lettuce, and six asparagus plants.

I marked out the rows for our new "3 sisters garden" -- we called JULIE before we tilled up the new bed, and (wouldn't you know it!) there are wires running through part of it. But I think we'll be fine. The planting in that bed needs to be done in mounds, and it looks like only one of the mounds will actually be where the wire is laid. We can either skip that mound, or carefully plant above ground and try to remember not to dig there.

I also worked up the ground and removed the grass and weeds south of the new bed and put in two red raspberry canes and two gold raspberry canes.

Finally, when Nicole got home, she transplanted a clump of garlic chives, and several nasturtiums. It's supposed to rain most of the weekend, so it's good that we got a lot done. I know I'll want to put in a trellis and some peas here as soon as possible, but that's probably going to have to wait until it's done raining.

Edit: Oh! I almost forgot! We also had our first harvest of the 2010 season last night! I picked, washed, chopped, and froze about ten stalks of rhubarb right before bedtime. Looking forward to mixing that with some fresh strawberries to make a tasty dessert!

Sowing the seeds of love

Today, we finally started getting some seeds in the ground. I laid down the mid-plot walkways in the first (kitchen garden) and third (tuber garden) beds. I then planted eight broccoli seeds, twelve seed potatoes, and half a row of radish seeds. The plan is to take some time off work tomorrow and put in leaf vegetables and onions in the top bed and find a place to plunk down our raspberries.

Cole removed a bunch of hosta and got to plant some of our first heirloom iris ("Eleanor Roosevelt," "Flavescens," and "Blue Rhythm") from Old House Garden in our woodland/shade bed. She also planted some lupine and lavender.

Impatiens... ready for planting

I forgot to mention that a couple days ago, Nicole planted some of her Impatiens that she grew from seed in the "woodland/ shade" flower bed. They appear to be doing marvelously. This year we're growing two complete flats from seed. Here's a photo of one of the flats. See how happy they all are?

Itching to plant

Last night, I did a second till of the garden beds to get the new "potting soil" mixed into our garden plots. Does it ever look healthy and fluffy!

The near-frost didn't seem to hurt our seedlings any. They're still growing just fine.

Cole dug out an entire flower bed on Sunday and last night she finished putting flowers back in. The anemones looked in pretty bad shape (it was another "OH NO! WE KILLED IT!" moment), and I thought the coral bell was a goner, but today the coral bell and at least two of the anemone look like they might just make it.

Cole's been "pimping" our flowers that we've dug up to her work people. She's gotten rid of I don't know how many buckets, boxes, and carloads of iris, ginger, hosta, lily-of-the-valley, phlox, etc.

Now I'm itching to put plants in the ground. I know it's early for most things, but c'mon! Potatoes, leaf veggies, radishes, onions! They can all go in. Tonight was Indian cooking class, so... no time. Tomorrow is church choir, so probably no time then, either. Thursday. Thursday we'll be planting. Come rain or freezing or hail or snow or monsoons or rain of toads. Thursday.

Amending our soil

Ugh… we left the seedlings outside last night for the first time, to continue hardening them off… and the temps got down to 33 degrees. I hope everything is alright.

Yesterday, we picked up two cubic yards of "potting soil" (organic compost without the bio-solids) from the Davenport composting facility. I then tilled it, along with all the ash from burning those shrubs, into the top three garden plots. We should till it one more time to get it worked in good, then we will be ready for planting!

Mertensia virginica

Last year, we swiped some bluebell plants from the forest outside of Dave's house when we were on a forced march up the side of Mount Peoria. We wrapped them in damp paper towels, but by the time we got them back home to Geneseo, we thought they might have been goners ("OH NO! WE KILLED IT!"). We planted them in our woodland bed anyway, and while they died back down to their roots last year, this year, they did indeed come back, and are actually flowering quite beautifully!

Bluebells are my very favorite flower. I have childhood memories of walking in the woods, going on mushroom hunts with my dad, and making sure to pick several stems of bluebells to bring back home to mom so she could put them in water. Next to roses and lilacs, I think bluebells are at the top of her list, too.

4/16 update

Thai Basil and Jalapenos are starting sprouts. I left them covered until we get more sprouts. Nothing from the savory yet. I moved them off of the heated pad for a day, but then decided to put them back on it, at least until the savory sprouts.

Rhubarb!

Rhubarb is up in the garden!! It’s actually pretty big… I don’t know when it started coming back.

Today, we chopped down the shrub bushes and juniper trees in front of the house and started burning them. It will take several more burning sessions to get rid of them all, but they’re coming along. Cole covered the rhubarb with 5 gallon buckets to protect it from the heat of the fire.

Last of the seedlings: planted!

I planted the last of the (first-round) indoor seeds today: Thai Basil, Savory, and Jalapenos. We’ve had the seedlings out in the three-season room, exposed to the elements for several days now, but tonight, I’m bringing them indoors; it’s supposed to get below freezing overnight. We’ll put them back out tomorrow.

Dagnab stupid leggy broccoli

Broccoli got way too leggy way too soon again, so we threw them out. ("OH NO! WE KILLED IT!") We’ll direct sow in the ground when we start planting, and pick up some plants as well. We may have to do that with the Nasturtiums, too, they are also too big.